Deborah Ann Woll: ‘Bill Will Get Everything He Deserves. Promise!’

Deborah: Jessica thinks Bill is kind of lame, the way most teenagers probably see their parents. I think people who treat teenagers like children get a certain amount of attitude back … and Bill will get everything he deserves. Promise.

PW: Some fans see Jessica as annoying. How do you see her?

Deborah: The amazing thing about being a teenager is that they have feelings that run very deep and don’t feel constrained by society — they express those emotions. There’s something incredibly beautiful about Jessica expressing, to her fullest ability, exactly how she feels. Sometimes that might come off as annoying, but in a way it’s very self confident and self assured. I wish I had more of that in me.

PW: It must be fun to play someone so open, experiencing everything for the first time.

Deborah: It’s interesting — in the script where Jessica is first turned, it’s written that she feels like a newborn. She’s like a toddler in her terrible twos mixed with a teenager, and it creates something so heightened that I don’t know if any parent could deal with it. So it hasn’t just been an angsty teen’s coming of age story, but also seeing someone go from a baby who knows nothing about the kind of creature she is to someone who is learning about life through intense experiences.

Deborah: Well, I love things that are just on the edge of reality — or even a little further is fine with me [laughs]. I think it’s fun to play with worlds that you can add a lot of your own imagination to. With “True Blood,” you’re not limited by anything, there are just leaps and bounds of the imagination you can take with these characters. And I love genre pieces because you can do or say anything and hopefully you’ve got someone like Alan Ball attaching an important message with it as well.

PW: I couldn’t agree more — whether it’s “Buffy” or “Dracula” there seems to be something about vampires that really lends itself to social commentary.

Deborah: Absolutely. There are the obvious comparisons to minorities and disenfranchised groups, which is important to talk about. Apart from being a woman, I haven’t experiences a lot of that. It’s interesting to take a look at people who deal with prejudice on a daily basis — it’s been a real eye opener for me. But my favorite theme we explore on the show is intimacy.

PW: In the romantic or interpersonal sense?

Deborah: When you really love someone, they know details about your soul and if they shared that with others, it would hurt so deeply, it could kill you. And the idea of doing a love story with a creature who could not only emotionally but physically harm you is an interesting idea.

PW: Jessica’s back story is a little murky — will that be explored more in season two?

Deborah: Oh, absolutely. Where you come from is such a huge part of who you are today. There would be no way to explore this new person Jessica’s become without looking back at who she was.

PW: How do you think season two stacks up to season one?

Deborah: Season two is much bigger. Last year, I think I only worked with three different actors essentially. This year it’s been much more about huge group scenes and that’s a little unusual for the show, but it’s more fun that way!

PW: And how would you describe Jessica’s journey in season two?

Deborah: I would say that this season is about growing up for Jessica. Every episode she becomes a little bit more adult. In the beginning, when she does something wrong, it’s “that’s your fault!” A lot of whining and complaining — what you saw in the first season. But as the episodes go on, Jessica starts to learn how to take responsibility. When things go wrong it becomes about learning how to deal with them in a more adult and compassionate way. You know, for a vampire.